Have you given any thought to your next chapter? Nearly four decades ago when I graduated from college, did I see myself as a professional recruiter? I knew I wanted to make the world a better place by making a difference in other people’s lives. My story, like so many others, has resulted in several chapters to balance personal life, career goals and the vision to grow engineering organizations. I now look back and realize each time I reflected on my goals and objectives I was writing my next chapter!
Preface – Early Career – Design Engineer
Upon graduation, I was eager to start as a mechanical process engineer in the nuclear power industry with a focus in design, construction, startup and operations of a grassroots facility. After eight and half exciting years and intellectual challenges that made me the engineer I am today; it was time to make the difficult choice to leave this great job to advance my husband’s career. Together, we embarked on our next chapter leaving our comfort zone of family in Kansas to start a new life in the GulfSouth with the added adjustment of switching roles from working as a plant engineer at a utility to a mechanical process engineer with EPC firm in the oil and gas and petrochemicals market sector.
Chapters 1, 2, 3, … – Mid Career to Senior Leadership Roles
During the next three decades, I became a licensed professional engineer, evolved from a design engineer to senior engineer, project engineer, project manager, program manager, director of mechanical engineering, vice president of engineering, principal in charge. I didn’t do this by myself. With the assistance of a skilled professional recruiter, I advanced my career from design engineer of projects to leading and growing engineering organizations. With each transition I would reflect on both my personal and career goals which provided me the opportunity and privilege to work on some of the most challenging engineering projects of my career in the aftermath and recovery from Hurricane Katrina. To this day I am grateful and humbled by the professionalism and knowledge of many of my colleagues over the years.
Next Chapter – Giving Back to the Profession as a Search Consultant
I now have the opportunity to assist many other engineering managers build their organizations to execute and implement their strategy and vision for their company as a professional search consultant (recruiter). Each day we take the time to understand the organization needs of companies and source highly qualified candidates to organizations who may never have found that opportunity on their own. Each week, I network among 150 to as many as 200 engineers and technical professionals across the country, learning what they are looking for in that next chapter and target employers that can offer them the intellectual challenge or work-life balance they are looking for. Here at OneSource Professional Search we focus our efforts on strategic growth of organizations and personal and professional goals and objectives. Perhaps we can assist you and/or your organization in writing the next chapter!
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